Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1887-03-05
The Recognition and Manifestation
offIc Church OF God.

The Recognition and Manifestation
0ffbc Church OF God.
For the benefit of Christians We continne
extracts from q recent publication of dis.
tinguished American preacher.
'Now while acknowledge most painful
defects in the organization Of our modern,
and especially our American Christianity,
and while look with earnest hope, not I'M
mixed with anxiety, Mt the many move
ments towards better state OF things, L
must confess G lack of complete and unre-
served sympathy with lamentations that
are often heard over the Loaf unity OF the
church, and with longing5 after restora-
ton OF unity. For cannot bring myself to
account of the unity OF Chriat's Church as of
thing that used to be, or thing that
ought to be attained in the future; but as q
thing that isis DOW, as il was in the begin.
ming and ever shall ne The religious aiiec-
tions of my heart fail to lay hold with any
satisfaction on some fragment Of q Church
which used to be enc, and hopes to be enc
again. But RECOGNIZES and love, through
all the ages and in every land, One Holy
Catholic and Apostolic Church, the fellow
ship of ell saints.
land that which 1 acknowledge and love
as look abroad over the great scope OF this
world ard OF history, | do not iGii to lind
when / look about me in whatever place |
find ny work appointed-the one Church,
the Commonwealth of believers. To the SER
vice of this, and not ofany fraction oft, how
ever pure in doctrine, however scrip.
tural OF historical in ritual, however
correct in form OF organization, however i'm.
posing by the megniiicence OF its extension
to the service of the whole fellowship of
believers in the town in which | serve, | am
devoted by the conservation that makes me
the mioister of Christ.
"Iam quite ready for the impatient OBJ
lection that all this is quite out OF time and
place-that whatever may once have been
true in the American church Of the nine
teenth century the church is no longer one,
but is divided. Divided? Yes, indeed.
That which the Apostle Paul deprf Gated
with earnest entreaty, adjuring the
Christians of Corinth by the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ that it should not be, has
befa!len u.s. that there are divisions among
u.s.. Doubtless the Church Of Christ among
us is divided but it is a divided UNFIT Ia
not many units. 1t is divided Church-it
is not many churches, even though in a de-
based modern dialect we may combine TO
/ call it so. The one Church Of Christ in
every city does not need to be created, but
to be recognized and to be manifested to the
world
ut needs to be recognized by its own
members and ministers. 1t does not now
offer itself to observation in any corporate
form. 1t has, nc chief officer, the visible
centre of unity 40 organized council or
presbytery, consulting for its united inter.
est no constitution or laws except the
word of its Lord in the New Testament !;
but, men and brethren, you who believe
10 the Holy Ghost, do you doubt-can you
doubt, so long as they who pass from death
to life are known by this that they love the
brethren, that here in every city the Church
OF Christ, one and indivisible, is most solid
realty-the Church of Christ, with its
cementing power Of mutual love, 80 sadly
hindered by ignorances and misconceptions.
and BY the miserable divisive spirit of sec
| tartan allegiance with its common zeal for
| its one Lord now wretchedy squandered in
wastcful competitions with its craving
needs and duties, so often forgotten by its
ministers in their eyorbitant sense of duty
to narrow parish or congregation Must
you needs sec this one Church of Christ be-
fore YOU can believe? Have you no sense
of paramount loyalty and duty 20 the whole
body of Christs disciples here, bur only a
little gush of sentiment when you have Civ
en- the devotion of your heart and the
strength of your manhood to the supreme
service of a party of Christians ?-whose
fortunes you are pushing with the spirit OF a
baseball game, as if the foundations which
| Paul condemns as works OF the flesh were
the very fruits of the Holy Spirit.
"And when l slid that the unity OF the Church
| in every town and city ought u be recognized by
| its ministers and members, / need hardly add
that it ought to be manifested To tho world. Being
acknowledged in the individual mind and con-
science, it certainly would be manifested, and
| that would be fulfilled which was spoken by the
Lord from heaven, that the believers should be
! one, that the world might know that the Father
4 had sent the Son.
Some how or other the one Church would find
its voice, to which the World would love to listen.
Even now, he that hath ears to hear what tho
Bride saith as we'll as what the Spirit saith
Every Christian town hssts speaking nonu-
ments not only of the competitive Christianity
which divides us, but Of the common Christianity
in which we unite. Every office OF charity or
ganization is headquarters of the ono Church;
and every individual charity from which is
wholly eliminated the leaven of partizanship-so
| that, undertaken in the common love of Christ,
and aiming at The common good Of all for whom
Christ died. it delights in putting glory on Christ
Himself and his whole Church-is work OF the
one Church." DISCIPLE or CHRIST.
A SERIOUS CHARGE.-Deputy Sheriff
Hayden, of Charles county, Md, about
week ago came to Washington with war